Hacker News Reader

Comment by Tyrek | Hacker News Reader

"hollering", as outlined in the Dean's memo, is fine. Attempting to execute a 'heckler's veto', however, is not.

I'd love to see a short paper on the difference between hollering and heckling that you perceive.

The idea that it is some kind of "veto" is again to misattribute power to the powerless. This figurative and hyperbolic language ('veto', 'witch hunt', etc.) clouds judgment.

This isn't the UN security council. This is a lot of horrified young people attempting to find self-expression. Sometimes, it's messy.

I think the insistence on wishing to appeal to emotion (think of the horrified young people!) is what is causing the consternation you're commenting on. Serious people - especially lawyers - shouldn't do this, and the event has made me take SLS less seriously as a law school. The students can find their "self-expression" in a number of different venues and no one - not a single person anywhere - is preventing them from doing that. Throwing your hands up and saying "well shucks, it's messy" isn't a standard or a reliable norm, and, this whole thing being about lawyers, one would expect these people to be very interested in what the rules actually are.

FWIW I don't think there's much daylight between "hollering" and "heckling". "Protest is allowed but disruption is not allowed" is the (directly quoted) standard that the SLS Dean is attempting to enforce.

Well, just read the Dean's letter linked in the article.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com